Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 8- Infiltration

"Have we heard anything from him?" Tarkin asks one of his intel officers who had come with him to Saleucami.

"No. We've heard nothing from the Third Brother since he hit the streets. We've found all of his troops' bodies, but not the man himself," the officer responds.

Tarkin frowns. "If he's been killed or taken prisoner by this so called 'Crimson Blade', then this figure is clearly more dangerous than we believed," he says aloud. He pauses for a few moments, then says, "I think it best to report to Lord Vader."

(On the ground)

At the Imperial shuttle depot, a small transport craft is preparing to head back up to the Executrix parked above the city. Some stormtroopers are loading some cargo onto the transport.

As the stormtroopers are occupied gathering up the cargo, none of them notice a figure slipping aboard the transport. Shrouded in darkness, Philip quietly slips aboard the transport. He quickly finds a pile of boxes in the back of the transport and he crawls into the gap amidst the boxes and sits to wait. Philip had stuck the Third Brother's head on a pole outside the town in the hopes it would draw attention in that direction while he snuck aboard the transport.

The stormtroopers soon finish loading up the transport. As they all board, the pilot shuts the loading ramp and lifts off, flying the transport up to the Executrix. All the while, Philip is quietly waiting in the back, waiting for his chance. He is staying utterly quiet, listening to any sound from the stormtroopers in the back of the transport with him, listening for any sign they may be onto him.

It takes only a few minutes for the transport to reach the Executrix given how low the Star Destroyer is over the planet's surface. Philip listens as the transport enters the Destroyer's hangar and sets down on the hangar floor. About half a minute passes before the loading ramp finally lowers and the stormtroopers aboard begin offloading the cargo.

Philip takes a deep breath and reaches out with the Force, feeling his surroundings. Thankfully, there aren't a lot of men around, with most of them just those who'd been aboard the transport.

Philip waits carefully, his hand resting on his lightsaber. Thankfully, the pile of crates he's hidden in seems to be one of the last ones on the list to unload.

Finally, as most of the cargo has been unloaded, Philip senses a stormtrooper walking towards the pile he's in, ready to start grabbing crates. Knowing now is the time he has to act, Philip carefully draws his lightsaber and aims it outwards. As the trooper reaches out to grab a crate, Philip activates the saber, the blade springing out, piercing through the crate and right into the trooper's chest.

As the trooper's body falls, Philip springs out of his hiding place, knowing he can't hide anymore. Philip, holding his humming saber, sprints out of the transport.

As Philip leaves the transport, he quickly scans the hangar. There are relatively few people in the hangar, and some don't even realize that Philip is there. However, the stormtroopers unloading the transport are not among those oblivious to Philip's presence.

The stormtroopers reach for their blasters. However, Philip is too quick. Philip sprints at the troopers and Force leaps towards them, slashing his saber through them, cutting down three troopers with a single stroke. A flurry of slashes sees the rest of the stormtroopers around him cut down.

By now, most of the rest of the hangar have noticed that Philip is in the hangar. Those in the hangar begin shouting warnings and reaching for their own weapons. However, Philip doesn't intend to stick around. He throws several thermal detonators he stole from one of the crates, then starts running for one of the entrances into the hangar as the detonators explode. Troopers and officers start firing blasters towards Philip, but he easily blocks the few bolts that come close to him before he makes it out of the hangar.

Philip makes his way down the corridors of the Executrix, keeping as quiet as he can. By now, he's drawn his blaster pistol with his free hand.

For almost an hour, Philip sneaks his way through the Star Destroyer, killing any stormtrooper or crew he comes across. Finally, Philip reaches one of the intelligence rooms aboard the ship. Philip cuts through the lock with his lightsaber and enters the room.

There are just two troopers in the room as guards. Philip immediately kills both of them with a pair of blaster shots. Waiting a moment as their bodies fall, Philip then walks up to one of the big consoles in the center of the room.

As he reaches the console, Philip pulls out a storage device he had stolen from an Imperial shuttle depot and plugs it into the console. Philip then starts typing, pulling up the directory into the ship's data archives.

As he pulls up the data archives, Philip starts looking through the names of the various data files. A few catch his interest, and he downloads them to the storage device. Finally, he finds the records he's looking for. A series of data files labeled under the title Inquisitorious.

"Gotcha," Philip says with a smirk as he begins downloading the files.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Tarkin is anxiously waiting for news. An Imperial officer had discovered the Third Brother's head on the edge of town just a minute before the warning came from the hangar that the Crimson Blade had been spotted in the hangar. As of now, all anyone knows is that the mysterious warrior is at large somewhere aboard the ship.

Tarkin is feeling slightly anxious. If this warrior could not only kill an Inquisitor but also board the ship and escape all surveillance, he's clearly much more dangerous and resourceful than previously believed. It's clear that the Empire has underestimated this individual.

Right then, an officer on the bridge says, "Sir, we're reading some unusual downloading in the aft-starboard intelligence room."

"It's him. Lock down the systems and dispatch all units to that area!" Tarkin orders. Tarkin knows speed is of the essence with this guy.

The officers on the bridge hurry to shut down the consoles in the intelligence chamber. However, by the time they've successfully shut down the consoles, Philip has already download all the available files on the Inquisitorius. Seeing that the systems have been shut down, Philip removes the storage device and rushes towards the door.

Philip is just a few steps into the hall before the first squad of stormtroopers comes into view. Philip reacts immediately, firing his blaster pistol and killing three troopers as his lightsaber springs to life.

"Blast him!" one of the three surviving troopers says to the others. However, Philip is already sprinting at them.

Philip slashes his saber, it's crimson blade humming, and cuts the lead stormtrooper in half. Another tries to raise his blaster, but Philip cuts the blaster in two before beheading him. Philip then spins around and buries his blade in the chest of the last trooper. Philip immediately rips the saber out of the trooper's body and races off before the body even hits the ground.

As Philip runs down the corridor, he can hear alarms beginning to sound. They're onto him for sure now. He has to make it back to the hangar quickly.

Philip starts running back through the corridors of the ship, heading back to the hangar. As he races through the corridors towards the hangar, he crosses paths with several squads of stormtroopers, killing every trooper he comes across, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake as he races for the hangar.

Finally, Philip reaches the hangar. As he enters the hangar, he sees several dozen stormtroopers waiting for him.

Philip fires a series of shots from his blaster pistol, killing half a dozen troopers. The other troopers begin firing their blasters at Philip, but he spins his lightsaber at great speed, blocking all incoming bolts. He then gathers up and releases a massive wave of Force energy, sending stormtroopers flying in all directions.

With the troopers knocked flying, Philip sets his sight on his target. One of two Lambda class shuttles parked in the hangar.

Philip sprints towards the shuttle, cutting down several troopers he runs past. It only takes him moments to reach the shuttle and sprint on board.

Getting into the cockpit, Philip races to power up the shuttle. It only takes moments before the engine and all of the shuttle's systems are online. Philip carefully lifts the shuttle off the hangar, and begins flying it carefully out of the hangar. At the same time, he activates the rear facing blaster cannon and fires it at random into the hangar behind him, destroying the other shuttle and killing a number of troopers.

On the bridge of the Executrix, Tarkin is waiting patiently for word. As he stares out of the viewport, he hears an officer say, "Sir, hangar controllers confirmed the Crimson Blade has stolen a transport and has left the hangar."

"Are they within range of the tractor beam?" Tarkin asks.

"No, they're headed back down to the surface, and they just got out of range of the tractor beam," the officer says.

Tarkin frowns a bit before ordering, "Dispatch TIE fighters to pursue."

Meanwhile, aboard the shuttle, Philip sets his sights on his cave. As he flies the shuttle down and touches down just outside his cave, he sees R2 waiting for him, pulling a trolley behind him with all of Philip's belongings. Philip lowers the boarding ramp, allowing R2 to bring the cargo aboard the shuttle. Immediately, Philip raises the boarding ramp and takes off again. As he does, he sees several TIE fighters flying down towards him, moving at attacking speed.

Philip shoves the throttles forward and the shuttle accelerates into the sky. As he climbs into the upper atmosphere, laser bolts begin exploding all around him as the TIE fighters behind him start firing.

"R2, program the hyperdrive. Get us out of here!" Philip orders. R2 beeps a few times and plugs into the navicomputer. It only takes seconds for R2 to beep that he's programmed the hyperdrive. Philip shoves the hyperdrive throttles forward, and the shuttle jumps into hyperspace.

Aboard the Executrix, Tarkin watches as the shuttle jumps to hyperspace. He had just received word that most of the data that Philip downloaded was data on the Inquisitors. For the first time since he first heard about the man, Tarkin is actually beginning to worry about the Crimson Blade. This man is clearly more dangerous and resourceful than previously believed, and now he has a lot of information on the Inquisitors, on top of other information. There's no knowing exactly what will come next with the Crimson Blade.

And, i'll end there. I hope you like this one.

Next chapter will be another time jump. It will show the start of Philip's crusade against the Inquisitors. It should be up in a week or two. Until then, please leave a review and stay tuned!